Why Node.js is becoming the go-to technology in the Enterprise

  > The old story of linkedin where moving to Node.js from Rails 
  > for their mobile traffic, reducing the number of servers from 30 to 3 
  >(90% reduction) and the new system was up to 20x faster.

It isn't as simple as that. There was a great article from a former linkedin engineer about why the original API server was so slow. [0]

[0]: http://ikaisays.com/2012/10/04/clearing-up-some-things-about...

Re: Why Node.js is becoming the go-to technology in the Enterprise

#5

Post by mantrax5 » Tue, May 13, 2014, 4:07 PM UTC

The real reason is quite simple. And I'm not trying to be bitter or anything, rather think like a businessman.

The reason is... it's full of JavaScript kids out there, and because they're so many, they're all replaceable, and cheap. Like the commodity hardware servers they're programming.

It's neat to cast this as "easy to attract and retain talent", but "rapid innovation" and "developer happiness" (especially considering the lack of strict typing, lack of basic primitives, single threaded-ness and callback hell of Node.JS) are just B.S. reasons of the kind a Node.JS consulting company would add so it doesn't all look so cynical.

Re: Why Node.js is becoming the go-to technology in the Enterprise

#6

Post by colechristensen » Tue, May 13, 2014, 4:14 PM UTC

mantrax5 wrote: post #5

The real reason is quite simple. And I'm not trying to be bitter or anything, rather think like a businessman. The reason is... it's full of JavaScript kids out there, and because they're so many, they're all replaceable, and cheap. Like the commodity hardware servers they're programming. It's neat to cast this as "easy to attract and retain talent", but "rapid innovation" and "developer happiness" (especially consid…

JavaScript is the new Java... sigh.

Re: Why Node.js is becoming the go-to technology in the Enterprise

#7

Post by chrramirez » Tue, May 13, 2014, 4:22 PM UTC

Trying to sell Node using soft arguments: "Argumento ad populum" and "Argumento ad novitatem", which BTW are fallacies. No technical arguments, no polls, no facts. Just fallacies.

Re: Why Node.js is becoming the go-to technology in the Enterprise

#8

Post by dubcanada » Tue, May 13, 2014, 4:27 PM UTC

And then as soon as Derpys Mansion new language comes out all the newcomers will flock to that and you're entire staff will leave to go work for some startup.

The reason why "Enterprise" uses the software they do is not because it's the fastest, or most suitable for the job. It's that it's been in production for many years and has a large ecosystem and strong commercial backing. Along with a strong workforce that isn't going anywhere.

Not that I don't think NodeJS awesome. The javascript language is just a bit meh for Enterprise development. I'm not sure if you've ever seen "Enterprise Javascript" but I sure as hell would not want to see "Enterprise NodeJS" I would much rather see a strong typed compiled language that requires things to be done a certain way. Rather then the clusterfuck of libraries NodeJS comes with.

Just my 2cents...

Re: Why Node.js is becoming the go-to technology in the Enterprise

#9

Post by beering » Tue, May 13, 2014, 4:29 PM UTC

These stories about switching to node are pretty funny: "I switched from a dump truck to a motorbike and now I can drive way faster!" Node.js isn't really faster than most other popular languages with an evented library, but if switching to Node involves scrapping years of enterprise cruft, then maybe it's worth it.

By the way, enterprise adoption of Node is surely a sign that we need to jump ship. Glad I got out of Rails before enterprise adopted it!

Re: Why Node.js is becoming the go-to technology in the Enterprise

#10

Post by CSDude » Tue, May 13, 2014, 4:31 PM UTC

I develop with Node since it is 0.4, and I can safely say that Node is as good as your abilitiy to manage callback hell. If you can, it is pretty awesome, however you need to study some patterns for that, otherwise it is messy.